Overview

[escher hands] Welcome to my main writing section of this website. I've been writing, technically and fictionally, since 1979. I have worked on over 20 technical publications whereas I currently have close to 40 fictional pieces. Up to now, none of my fictional pieces have been published by I do have some rejection letters.

This section focus on my fiction: past, present and future. At this moment in time, I have put some PDF versions on-line but many of my short stories still need to be transcribed. In the 80's, many of my stories were written using an IBM Selectric or old word-processors using a dot-matrix printer.

One problem, though. In 2003, I lost my originals because of a nasty incident with a person I thought was a friend. I have been able to find some copies, through friends, and am now in the process of transcribing them. So I hope to get this section more and more populated with the good, bad, ugly and warped.

Yet at the same time, I have been extremely busy since 2003. The focus has been a long fantasy series called Tangled Threads. The first draft was started in 1996 and finished in 2000. Because of being homeless and in a mess for a while, I did not get back to the series until 2004. So I spent a good year starting major revisions.

Whereas I was happy with the new version, it still wasn't right. So I've gone back and started major changes to the first volume. But I am hoping that the first volume will be set for major editing and critique by the summer of 2007.

Introduction

A brief history for those who are interested. In 1974 and 1976, I wrote a couple of stories, nothing to write home about. The writing bug didn't really catch on, even though it was interesting.

Then one fateful night, in November 1979, I was walking through a park, going home. The cloud cover was such that it was not noticeable but it obscured the stars. This coupled with a pinch of paranoia, someone forgot to turn the stars one, a story started Worlds Apart. Something happened, a germ of an idea formed. I started to put it onto paper and bang, 9 months later (no joke), out came a story. A few people showed interest and stroked my ego. Slowly, more stories started to come out so by 1982, I was regularly writing.

Through my various years of writing, there have been many ups and downs, plus dry periods. Currently, I have written 42 original stories, essays, plus a few rewrites.

As I slowly improved my craft, an interesting challenge appeared. I have enjoyed many series such as Tales of Known Space by Larry Niven and Future History by Robert A. Heinlein which had autonomous stories that were link together either by characters or historical connections. A Question of Ethics brought forth one view of the future. From this, my version of a future history appeared; coined as the Human Sphere stories.

Developing a future history is intriguing and presents many areas for expansion. At the same time, it came to be quite restricting (which can be good). If the story is to fit in the Human Sphere, the various social and scientific advances had to force a story to be put into a different time or area than planned. At the same time, if the character is to develop something, he has to have been born (it proves useful) and be the 'right' age (my character may be smart but not child proteges). Because of this, some of the planned advances called for new characters.

A good book can be considered the best of friends. From the response of some of my stories, this fits quite well which does wonders to my ego. At the same time, I find that what I have written fills me with a sense of pride. Many of the characters have become part of me (or the other way around) and have become close friends.

World of Rë

The world of Rë has been part of my life since the early 1980's. Back in 1982, my friend Errol Burke suggested we collobrate on a project he was thinking about. It was meant to be a fantasy series like ElfQuest with a magic rabbit, faerie and agnome.

He would do the artwork while I wrote the story. Quickly as the stories evolved, I realized that we needed a back drop; a world that had rules and regulations. So Rë started to form. It became a melange of things from Lord of the Rings and Dungeon & Dragons. This happened because I was starting to DM a group and wanted to fresh world for my players to be in. So I shamelessly stole from different modules from Greyhawk and Forgotten Realms to build my world.

The project, in the end, came to a crashing halt. The writer in me started to take over the project and Errol found many of his original ideas being overshadowed by my taking control. It was becoming my project, not his. So it came to an end.

I keep developing the world for my AD&D group, but as that group started to fall apart, the games came to an end. I put all the notes and ideas aside as I do with all of my notes. So dust collected on those three-ring binders until the mid-90's.

I had started a new series of fantasy short stories called The Elegy Series. Originally they were just one offs, using Celtic and Amerindian tales as a basis. But as more stories started to appear, I needed to build a world for these stories to fit in. So I dusted off the binders and looked over my notes on Rë.

The big problem was the heavy scaffolding I used with respect to AD&D and Lord of the Rings. There were many unique aspects to my ideas but it was not original enough. So I had to start to gut many things and form my own world.

At the same time, this meant things like timelines and details. And it was then things started to become crazy. Suddenly instead of a single line, I started to write paragraphs on specific time periods. One in particular grew to 10 pages of prose and notes. At first I thought it was going to be a new short story. Boy was I wrong!

In August 1996, I went for a three week vacation to Ireland. I brought the timeline and notes with me. The 10 pages grew into 70 pages of prose. I found myself inspired when I was on the west coast of Ireland. I couldn't stop writing. And when I got home, the inspiration didn't stop.

What I thought was going to be a novel grew into a trilogy. And then it grew out of control. Right now, I see Tangled Threads spanning at least 7 volumes. So since 1996, this has been my main focus. But more details can be found in the different sections of this part of the website. Enjoy!